WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump will let the bipartisan housing bill approved by Congress become law without his signature, saying Friday he was refusing to put his name on it because of the little progress made in passing a strict voter ID bill he has been pushing.
“I will not sign the Housing Bill, which has been fully approved by Congress and sent to the White House, in PROTEST over the fact that the United States Senate is not capable of passing THE SAVE AMERICA ACT,” Trump posted on social media.
Trump had 10 days until the Friday deadline to sign the bill, issue a veto or allow the measure to take effect without his signature. He has chosen to let the measure become law without his express approval, undercutting his administration’s claims he considers it a priority to combat inflation.
Trump’s rejection of the bipartisan housing legislation exacerbates tensions with his own party in a midterm election year and cuts short their efforts to address a key voter concern about rising costs. His post comes more than a week after he canceled plans to sign the bipartisan legislation, announcing he was using it as leverage in his push for a strict voter ID bill.
The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act aims to lower the cost of housing and spur more home construction. It’s the broadest federal effort in decades to address America’s housing affordability problems, as state and local regulations have made it difficult to build in many of the communities that are also sources of job growth and economic opportunity. White House economists estimated earlier this year a national shortage of 10 million homes, and the bill could help close a portion of that gap.
But Trump called the bill “a yawn” and “so unimportant” compared to legislation that would require proof of citizenship for all voters.
He surprised Republican lawmakers on June 24, when, shortly before a planned signing ceremony at the Capitol, he announced he would not approve the bill until lawmakers first passed the voting legislation.
That bill, the SAVE America Act, doesn’t have enough Republican support to pass.
“I hope he does sign it,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., Johnson told reporters after submitting the housing bill to the White House. “If he doesn’t, it’s still law. We’ll still celebrate it.”
He said he also understood Trump was trying to make a point the elections bill is the top priority. “And I think he’s making it very effectively,” Johnson said.
Still, Trump’s decision not to sign the bill gave Democrats an opening to criticize him on the issue of affordability.
“His priorities couldn’t be clearer: higher cost for families and more power for himself,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said on X.
The housing bill passed the Senate on an 85-5 vote, and the House approved it with an 358-32 vote.
That legislation seeks to cut federal housing rules, slim-down environmental reviews, make it faster to build homes and limit the ability of corporations to buy single-family homes.
The U.S. housing market has been a driver of recent affordability challenges as skyrocketing prices have kept aspiring buyers out of the market.
The National Association of Realtors said Thursday the median sales price increased 1.8% in June from a year earlier to $440,600, an all-time high on data going back to 1999.
“We passed the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act because too many New Mexicans are being priced out of a place to live. This legislation is now law — despite President Trump choosing to prioritize attacking Americans’ right to vote over helping families afford housing,” U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, one the bill's sponsors, said in a statement. “This new law will help make housing more affordable and put homeownership within reach for more New Mexicans.”
In a news release, the New Mexico Democrat said the median home sale price in the state has increased from $216,500 in 2019 to $345,000 in 2024 while the state's housing inventory has fallen to half of where it was in 2018.